It was the Texas COBRA program that said that my son would have to pay $3000 a month for the program - even if he were completely broke and unemployed. No word of state subsidies or help of any kind.
I think you are misunderstanding what COBRA is. COBRA is not a premium reduction plan or a “program” to provide subsidized insurance to people who cannot otherwise afford coverage. COBRA simply allows for former employees and dependents of formerly insured employees who lose coverage because they are not longer employed, to continue on their employer’s group health plan, an employer with 20 or more employees, to elect to continue that very same coverage on the group plan for a limited time – 18 months and in the case of loss of coverage due to divorce or loss of dependent status for 36 months (some other rules apply but I won’t get into all that minutia).
Under COBRA, the COBRA participant pays the full monthly premium and often a 2% administrative fee as allowed by law, – the very same premium BTW that the employer pays for that very same coverage and coverage level and not what the employee’s share is or the employer’s share is, but what the insurance company bills to the employer for that coverage. I found a lot of people signing up for COBRA were shocked by the monthly premium as they were expecting to pay the same as what was deducted from their paycheck. But what they didn’t consider was that the employer was paying a good portion of that monthly premium, 70, 80 or 90 percent in most cases.
COBRA coverage is often cheaper, as it is a group plan with lower rates because of a larger risk pool, but is not always necessarily cheaper than obtaining individual coverage; it all depends on the size and rates the employer gets from the insurance company.
Also COBRA coverage is contingent on the employer maintaining the group health plan. If an employer’s plan is cancelled due to non-payment or they go out of business and terminate the group health plan, COBRA participants lose their coverage even if they have been paying their COBRA premiums. Also if the employer makes changes to their group health insurance, drops or adds plans, gets a rate increase, increases deductibles, etc. at renewal, COBRA participants are subject to those same changes just as active employee’s are – COBRA participants also have the right to make changes to coverage at open enrollment – add, drop dependents, switch from an PPO to an HMO if offered, just as can active employees.